Establishment of a Pre-Approved Trade Corridor for Economic Growth and Investment

Issue: 

Canada’s largest export market is the United States of America for raw materials, manufactured goods, and many other products. Particularly in Alberta, most of our crude oil is exported to the United States for refinement. Our over-reliance on one trading partner was exposed as tariffs were threatened which would cripple American buying power and by extension demand for Albertan and Canadian products.

Background: 

Canada and Alberta rely heavily on the United States as a market for their exported goods. In 2024, 75.9% of Canada’s exports were sent to the United States.201 This figure is even larger in Alberta, where exports to the United States accounted for 89% of our export sales in 2023202 due to 97% of Canada’s crude exports going to the United States.

Our Recommendations

1. Collaborate with other provinces and territories to map out a multi-modal national Pre-Approved Trade Corridor that will provide Canadian raw materials and products such as crude oil, hydrogen, electricity, water, access to ports on the east, west, and arctic coasts, to facilitate access to diverse markets outside of North America. This corridor will include pipelines, highways, railways, and transmission lines, including reviving and completing the Northern Gateway pipeline project;

2. Advocate for investment in the newly mapped trade corridor, including expanding federal funding programs such as the National Trade Corridors Fund and working with the Canada Infrastructure Bank and provincial investment funds to fund the newly mapped continuous trade corridor;

3. Collaborate with the other provinces and territories to ensure products can move through the newly built corridor freely, without interprovincial tariffs, and pre-approved for all environmental, land use, and interprovincial requirements with a single-window regulatory framework;

4. Ensure that consultation with Indigenous communities, municipalities, and other key stakeholders regarding the Pre-Approved Trade Corridor is concluded at the outset, creating certainty for project proponents;

5. Establish equity-sharing agreements with communities so they have opportunities for direct investment and deployment, promoting local procurement policies in corridor-related products;

6. Develop additional specialized industrial hubs that bundle complementary industries and offer tax incentives to attract logistics companies, manufacturers, and exporters, including but not limited to locations such as Calgary and Edmonton; and,

7. Diversify Alberta’s customer base and market access by promoting its products and establishing trade relationships in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and expanded and new US markets, reducing over-reliance on any single market.